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The survey coincided with the premiere of the group's Web site, called the 'Common Sense Media Guide' -- www.commonsensemedia.org/mediaguide. The site evaluates the kinds of films, TV shows and music a child is likely to encounter in the age of ubiquitous media. It makes recommendations and describes content but does not call for banning offensive material. The idea, the group says, is to let parents know what their kids are getting into.

According to the preliminary analysis, carried out by UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education (IBE, Geneva, Switzerland)**, religious education appears as a compulsory subject in the timetables of 73 of the countries surveyed o­n at least o­ne occasion during the first nine years of schooling.

In 54 of these countries, the time to be devoted to religious instruction during the first six years of education amounts to an average of 388.4 hours or approximately 8.1 percent of total intended teaching time.

The Barna survey compares to a Gallup poll that found 24 percent of Americans were "very likely" to have read books o­n religion and theology within the last year. In fact, among 13 categories of books, the genre of religion and theology scored third in the Gallup poll, with biographies or books about history ranking first (30 percent) and thriller or suspense novels second (25 percent). Self-improvement books ranked just under religion and theology in the Gallup poll at 23 percent.

A new study by the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) shows religious teenage girls are less likely to have sex. "Religion affected their attitude about sex and it was those attitudes, in turn, that made them less likely to have sex," Ann Meier, of the University of Wisconsin, said. She said being involved in a religious environment made a huge difference in those teenagers' attitudes. The study was comprised of 90,000 teens in the seventh through 12th grades. The NICHD is hoping the information helps health researchers come up with programs to prevent teens from engaging in sexual activity.

Since the publication of "God and Man" in 1951, the abandonment of traditional religious belief has been more pronounced at elite colleges than in the population at large, he said, citing polls that show more than two-thirds of all Americans pray every day and Bible study groups have grown. And what is ironic about this campus revival is that it is, in part, a rebellion by the children and grandchildren of the baby boomers who dropped out of traditional religion, Dr. DiIulio said. "College students say religion is important to their lives," Dr. DiIulio said.

The influence of cults and various religious ideas, compounded with Americans' poor theological foundations, has produced "a great deal of fuzziness in spirituality," he said. That particularly has taken its toll o­n mainline denominations--Episcopalian, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian--each of which has lost about o­ne-third of its membership in the past three decades.

It also asked for the first time whether someone had changed his or her religious preference, and 16% said yes. The biggest shifts were a move to no religion, not a new faith, or a move to shed any specific label.

Such statistics are snapshots of "people o­n a journey that may not be over," says Ariela Keysar, another co-author of the survey, noting that 1% to 5% of people returned to their original religion.

Among "switchers," interfaith marriage seems to be a primary force, Keysar says.

Scientific, technological and economic advances offer better explanations for the secularisation of modern society than sin, though they may also open up new occasions for evil conduct. They present a challenge that those of us who are practising Christians have yet to meet. Indeed, we are in danger of castigating and condemning them, like so many Canutes ordering the tides to turn back.

"Women, more often than not, take the lead role in the spiritual life of the family," Barna said. "Women typically emerge as the primary - or o­nly - spiritual mentor and role model for family members." In modern churches, women are 33 percent more likely to volunteer than men, according to Barna research. That means women tend to take the lead in lay leadership, though nine out of 10 senior pastors are men. "Sometimes the leadership issue is explained by the idea 'Men create theology but women carry it forward,' " said the Rev.

In a survey by the George H. Gallup International Institute in 1997 found that people overwhelmingly desire to reclaim their spirituality in dying.The survey showed 65 to 95 percent want their physicians to address their spiritual issues with them, yet o­nly about 10 percentof their physicians actually do.

Years ago, people tended to leave their faith at the office door, but that attitude is changing. Whether clashes occur between supervisors and subordinates or among co-workers, the responsibility ultimately becomes the employer's. Workplace religious studies are proliferating. Numerous books advocate enhancing work spiritually. Employees are asserting their rights to wear religiously mandated apparel and to work schedules that accommodate their worship times.

Sider called the United States the most powerful and dominant force in the world since the Roman Empire. "Do we use that power for shorter-term self-interest or do we take the lead and create a different kind of world that is genuinely free and democratic?" he asked.

Jim Wallis of the Washington-based Sojourners community said, however, that it won't be enough for U.S. faith groups to merely oppose or protest what is increasingly being called the "Bush Doctrine" in foreign policy; it will be necessary to develop concrete, specific alternatives to U.S. policy

William Scott Green, professor of religion at the University of Rochester, said a study of the religious beliefs and practices of 11 religious groups in seven countries showed that most people saw religion as a positive thing."If you look at Israel and India, where there is violence that we associate with religion, the majority of people in both of those places say that the violence is political rather than religious," Scott Green said."That's a very important